- Location
- Staring into the void
It's even worse than this, as we'd need to get additional perception arts to be able to make use of the range from archery effectively.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- At the end of the world
Yeah. Plus we have next to none bonuses to Physical Hit and Penetration.
- Location
- Ukraine
- Pronouns
- She/They
Once again, I'm not proposing making archery our primary speciality. If we're not getting Strength up to competitive we don't need an art of higher potency than early-mid Green and either way we don't need multiple arts.
Not dealing enough damage for what? To kill them? We're not in a war of extermination. Killing opponents is only rarely the military goal of an engagement. If we can threaten them, harass them, split their attention (most people really aren't great at thinking straight and remaining focused while being shot by arrows, even if those arrows barely more than plink off their defensive Arts), that matters.
And that's a hypothetical I threw in more than anything. My primary argument for archery is, again, pure stealth/harrassment missions, where 'attacking from their midst with death fields' would defeat the point in any of multiple ways.
(We're revealing our presence/identity, we're putting ourselves in range for a counter-attack by higher realm/stage opponents also present, we're starting a fight where there shouldn't be one, etc)
Battlefield control powers are kind of all or nothing. You're in video game combat mode and everyone around is divided into ally and enemy. Destructible elements of environment are getting destroyed, alarms are blaring, reinforcements are coming exactly to where you are which they can tell by the fact that that's where the death field is.
That's not how stealth missions work. Lower commitment attacks that aren't throwing knife range are important to have as a tool.
(And a long range view zoom-in perception art is a good utility that can come in handy in far more than just the bow-using situations, for all that it is indeed an additional time/potentially meridians commitment)
(Roaming Moon's Eye gives an excellent detailed view, but it's limited by range, while a proper sniper perception art just needs line of sight. If you can see the peak of that mountain over the horizon, you can see what's on it)
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- Location
- United States of America
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this.
As an individual who advocated for archery in the past thread, I have come to agree that archery doesn't really have a relevant place in the build that the thread is constructing and the roles that Ling Qi will engage in for combat and social maneuvering.
First off, I would be careful in categorizing Ling Qi as a trickster simply because of her connection to the Grinning Moon because I think that Ling Qi doesn't typically adhere to that facet of the Grinning Moon. For the Grinning Moon is more than simply a trickster, it is also about freedom of movement, of not being restricted by such petty things as guards or security, but also of enjoying the moment, of having fun in the action. Those, I think, are more relevant to Ling Qi path forward as a cultivator than the facet of the Grinning Moon reserved for trickery. Even her domain creates the distinction with little to nothing involving the tricking of an enemy but having significant capability in not being stopped or restricted.
Next, Ling Qi can already act from distance with anonymity. Her Roaming Moon Eye allows for remote scrying and spying of various locations and factions, and such capabilities seem to be increasing in said art as we develop it further. Such capability of information gathering is useful when conducting information-gathering missions such as our foray into the Corrupted Caverns or, although we haven't yet done it, information gathering excursions against the Cloud Nomads. But, I think, your position is more that the ability to project force and essentially scare an enemy remotely and anonymously has value to Ling Qi. If that is your position, then I would have to disagree. We have seen that Ling Qi is more than capable of ambushing Cloud Nomad groups through stealth and AoE arts, essentially tearing apart groups of nomads quickly and without warning. Her speed allows her to interact with multiple groups of raiders in a substantial tract of land, her stealth allows her to intercept Cloud Nomad groups without warning, and her AoE capabilities allow her to churn through the chaff of such groups quickly and with relative ease. In light of such capabilities, projecting force from range seems largely redundant when she can ambush groups and wipe them out before moving on to the next group. This is further compounded that such a projection of force is likely to do little to the Cloud Nomads who themselves engage in long-range high mobility warfare. They will have the means to prevent any damage from such warning shots unless we invest heavily in archery. And investing so heavily into archery defies the purpose of lightly investing for utility purposes.
As for the direction of our build? It seems to be moving much more solidly into the realm of battlefield control rather than support, especially when we are working with individuals we care little for individually. BKSD and UGM both provide powerful means of repositioning our opponent to deny them attacks or place them in worse positions, and our domain itself can cause problems for individuals trying to escape, compounded by BKSD and UGM movement controlling abilities. In light of our AoE capabilities and Battlefield control aspects, our support options are relatively anemic, our domain notwithstanding. As such, I would say that in general, we are much more powerful as a battlefield control operative than as a support character. This further compounds when one considers our place in the army. As a stealthy high-mobility asset, we are perfect for infiltration and extraction missions for information gathering when operating solo. Our battlefield control abilities enhance our ability to work together with a team which makes us a stealthy difficult to pin down disruption asset for a team fight. I just don't see how adding archery in any meaningful way enhances what we can already do.
I think archery is a fun hobby for Ling Qi to use in social situations, where her role has not been as clearly defined, but in terms of serious competitions and battlefield maneuvers, she just doesn't seem to need archery to do what she wants to do or stop others from doing what they want to do.
As a side note regarding Cai's build, I think that it is actually a bit of understated genius for Yrs to make a mega-bureaucrat into a powerful dispeller. Bureaucrats' most powerful moment is when they tell others "No," and outside of that, they have little power. But the ability to stop others from doing what they want to do makes bureaucrats frustrating to deal with, and potentially dangerous, especially in a world of cultivation with arts and techniques. And, I think, that the massive damage that Cai can do is actually a logical bridge that a mega dispeller could deal a lot of uninterrupted damage because the opponent has no means of stopping said damage.
But that is my two cents, that as Ling Qi's build becomes more pronounced, her need and desire for archery to be a useful utility aspect decreases because of our own increasing abilities in stealth, mobility, AoE's, and Battlefield control. Furthermore, as we advance up the ranks of cultivation, the investment needed in archery becomes prohibitively costly for any minor utility it could bring and such investment is better spent on improving our own core capabilities, or protecting our core capabilities (such as dispell protection). As such, I think that the turning point for Ling Qi to be an archer, even only tangentially, has passed, and going back to archery now will be too costly for any benefit we might receive.
Point of order, Ling Qi's music arts weren't actually very good at support, and even now arguably are not competitive with peers in that area.
What happened is we decided that's what we wanted to do. It's a... work in progress.
- Location
- At the end of the world
Did you remember last time we met Cloud Tribes? You know, that time when they tried their best to massacre every villager they see? At that point harassing them with arrows is the same as asking them to kill all mortal folk they can before leaving for next village. You know why? Because there was a lot of them. Harrasing some wouldn't send the message. The only reason they fleed that time is because LQ overpowered their leader who was really close cultivation-wise. And now think of what would have happened if we used Archery against him, even presuming that we had good bow and good Archery Art. Prolonged standoff. Without dealing enough damage it doesn't matter if we can harass him at any part of battlefield. If I were him I would stall for time and use his own archers to harass LQ, stack multi attacker bonuses and reduce our chances to actually hitting him.
I'm not saying that Archery is bad for Stealth missions, on the contrary. But it's pretty niche, because at this level we can finish most stealth missions without needing to harass anyone at all.
What peers? Name someone other than HanJian with good support Arts at that point and even now.
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Cai Renxiang, Bian Ya, Xuan Shi, and Ma Jun, relative her power level/as a proportion of her build. Gu Xiulan's spirit I can't remember the name of.
We don't actually see people fight very often, and especially in circumstances where support techs are in play. What do Yu Nuan's techs look like? Ruan Shen? We dunno. List could easily be twice as long.
Edit: Gan Guangli and Kang Zihao also have support techs, but they've never once managed to effect a narrative victory on the basis of their support. Come to think of it, that puts them on the same level as Ling Qi. There's our actual peers, support-wise. Don't think it's quite where we've aimed for, though.
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This is unrelated to the current discussion but does anyone think advanced skill kind of become like a deus ex machina. In the votes, ppl may pick the risky option if the skill related to the option in at C because it will probably breakthrough. I don't think many ppl would've picked the option to get knifed at throat if resistance( or something) wasn't at C. Also, we haven't seen any ally or more importantly any enemies comprehending advanced skills so far. So, it kinds of feels like a main character trick now.
- Location
- CA
How did you think "I'm gonna punch the music" worked?
I'm not saying no one else used advanced skill in the quest there was a few. But I don't think anyone lvled up their skill on screen like LQ.
Did sword boi got the skill in the fight? When reading, i thought he already had that skill!
- Location
- Earth
finally, after a week of frantic binge-reading, i have caught up. this quest owns
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Welcome! Glad you found the quest.
Black Noise
Curious
- Location
- About 1AU from Sol
Let's talk about support and buffs for a bit since I'm seeing some fairly narrow definitions used as well as a discrepancy between abilities present in the build vs ones used in our all-in-all fairly limited mass-combat opportunities. tl;dr at the end.
First off, some definitions, because confused language gets arguing in circles. What is a buff?
In the broadest sense I'd say "support" buffs are effects which tilt the balance between allies and enemies in combat beyond 1v1 scale. This is perhaps too general, so I'll break it down somewhat.
I see 2 types of effects mixed under that word 'buff':
There's an additional, somewhat more vague layer of difference between passive and active effects:
An illustrated difference is Deepwood Vitality from TRF vs Unruffled Stygian Reflection from SNR. Mechanically, both serve the same role of stopping C-rank attacks from hitting the user an their allies but:
One very important observation to make here based on the language above:
In addition to all that, buffs can act on a variety of axes, and have varying degrees of effect strength. Some axes are gonna matter more in some fights than others. e.g +ally mobility isn't gonna matter as much when defending a stationary target as when chasing down a bunch of bandits with a punitive force.
Most realistic builds have a variety of buff effects of various types and strengths, for example CRX has her radiant army stuff for positive passive effects, as well as her "fuck your techs" dispels as active negative. Xuan Shi has extremely potent area defense capabilities for active positive and negative defensive support. Builds like Meizhen or Liling's don't have a lot of support elements per-se (other than stuff like fear effects making people easier targets), but they're such powerful combatants that they basically occupy a lot of an opposing army's attention on their own, which lets allies rally around them as hardpoints.
Keeping the above in mind, let's look at LQ's expected near-term build from the lens of buffs of all kinds:
There's also the scope axis, it's a bit boring. Most of LQ's big positive effects are limited to ~5 targets (more at a cost), and other than major single-target CC like elegy or LW her debuff fields are fairly global within her aoe. This naturally lends itself to a "small elite squad that can hold its own against large numbers" combat paradigm, and is also partly why we call LQ's style something like "field control".
Also not mentioned the already-present and steadily growing synergy between LQ and her spirits, especially Zhengui for said field control since he covers a much more physical angle than LQ, both offensively and defensively.
summary/tl;dr:
Ignoring terms like "buff" or "support", it's a fairly long list and most of LQ's arts are at significant+ in terms of how they affect a many vs many engagement. Feel free to draw your own conclusions from this.
Also note, I've not talked about how much any of this comes/has come into play in previous large-scale fights but it feels like a decent amount, someone else can pick up this line from here since the post is already way too long.
First off, some definitions, because confused language gets arguing in circles. What is a buff?
In the broadest sense I'd say "support" buffs are effects which tilt the balance between allies and enemies in combat beyond 1v1 scale. This is perhaps too general, so I'll break it down somewhat.
I see 2 types of effects mixed under that word 'buff':
- Positive buffs: techs (or passives) that increase ally stats or grant them additional abilities. An armor tech like HRA is a positive buff. So is the multiattacker penalty (since mechanically it's a +hit/pen buff).
- Negative buffs: techs or effects, usually (but not always) debuffs, which make enemy abilities or stats less effective against allies in the same battlefield. Elegy is a negative buff, and so is a taunt like what Zhengui has is a negative buff.
There's an additional, somewhat more vague layer of difference between passive and active effects:
- Active buffs are ones where the user actively creates the effect of the buff, for example absorbing an area attack with Black Mirror, or an effect like Pressure Crack or Encircling Wind where for the user effectively actively creates an opening on an opponent to grant allies more effective hits. A more recent example would be Elegy's isolation mode.
- Passive buffs are ones where the user grants an ally a new ability or some numeric stat increase. Effects like IPF's ally half-rank buffs count, but so does something like HRA since it's a construct created for allies to be used at their discretion.
- To be clear, "enchant" effects like HRA somewhat straddle the line between active and passive, and from a dry mechanical perspective the difference between the two is even less distinct, but I put them in the latter because they're more about empowering one's allies with new abilities or better numbers (e.g armor enchant) than about creating effects which benefit them (e.g stygian reflection).
- I would also tentatively classify "field" effects such as IPF, elegy saturating our mist, and even field effects like BKSD's as passive since they ultimately serve as backdrop for allies to benefit from and enemies to be constrained by.
An illustrated difference is Deepwood Vitality from TRF vs Unruffled Stygian Reflection from SNR. Mechanically, both serve the same role of stopping C-rank attacks from hitting the user an their allies but:
- DWV is a positive, passive buff:
- it grants allies a protective construct with which increases their armor a bit and survives 1 full attack for them, but requires no intervention from LQ beyond the initial cast.
- if LQ is using her own response action to effectively reflex-save for an ally by casting DWV in the last moment, then it becomes an active use of the tech.
- USR on the other hand, is a negative, active buff:
- it acts on the enemy tech and absorbs it (negative), and the effect is always "about" LQ casting it to absorb an enemy tech.
- the effect is only negative in terms of ally support, for the LQ it's a positive buff (at least mechanically) with negative aesthetics. Fits a Yin art vs the Yang of TRF.
One very important observation to make here based on the language above:
- just hitting an opponent hard is an active negative buff for one's allies
In addition to all that, buffs can act on a variety of axes, and have varying degrees of effect strength. Some axes are gonna matter more in some fights than others. e.g +ally mobility isn't gonna matter as much when defending a stationary target as when chasing down a bunch of bandits with a punitive force.
Most realistic builds have a variety of buff effects of various types and strengths, for example CRX has her radiant army stuff for positive passive effects, as well as her "fuck your techs" dispels as active negative. Xuan Shi has extremely potent area defense capabilities for active positive and negative defensive support. Builds like Meizhen or Liling's don't have a lot of support elements per-se (other than stuff like fear effects making people easier targets), but they're such powerful combatants that they basically occupy a lot of an opposing army's attention on their own, which lets allies rally around them as hardpoints.
Keeping the above in mind, let's look at LQ's expected near-term build from the lens of buffs of all kinds:
- General: lot of field effects means LQ is worth like 2~4 peer-level cultivators in terms of multiattacker. It's not the biggest bonus but it's a persistent edge and for a small group against large numbers it is actually a huge help defensively.
- Domain:
• lot of layers of passive effects, including some fairly insane spirit defense bonuses to high SL allies. Speed, initiative and the various immunities as well.
• the Mist has both positive and negative buffs:
- allies gain qi regen and even more defenses (avoid and sp.def)
- enemies suffer the 1/2 rank perception debuff, elegy for debuffs and qi degen, and dissonance enhances the effect strength of another field effect.
• Overall the Mist is a huge advantage to allies and disadvantage to enemies:- The effect is so strong it was able to largely stalemate a team buff-oriented G4 opponent's buff network.
- We can expect this to continue; in smaller/more even fights it's a home field advantage, and in small-team vs large force it's an equalizer that denies large formation-based scaling and basically has to be directly contested by enemy generals or LQ kills the opposing army on her own (I think this is a big part of why spiritualists are considered big threats).
- PLR:
• largely passive, fairly potent support; allies get the 1/2 rank to avoid and speed.
• a potentially active-defensive use of EDD to relocate an ally or an enemy.
• Lunatic Whirl can target multiple enemies at once and is actually an absurdly strong effect, unless an enemy general acts to mitigate it, LW alone can shift the odds very fast.
- SNR:
• very strong defensive support, basically as good as LQ's own to allies in range.
• as mentioned, passive positive armor support as well as active negative defensive support with enemy tech absorption.
- FSS:
• SEA/echoes is generally fairly unpleasant for enemies to be in since their aoe's are less damaging and they become more suceptible to spirit damage (and LQ's attacks specifically).
• If we're attacking someone with HR they kinda have to devote full attention or eat an extremely nasty debuff and DoT effect.
• Potency is starting to fall off since the art is G2.
• Generally fairly minor in terms of contributing to ally ability so not much of a buff art.
- HDW: no.
• well technically it has nice-looking buffs we never used because it's basically doing a shitty attempt at what we're already getting from our Domain and we have much better uses for in-comat actions.
- RME: no combat buff/support elements. Scrying is nice in a larger battlefield context as it enables limited long-range coordination.
- WHR:
• actually one of our stronger large-scale support abilities.
• second tech is both positive and negative qi support, adding an C-rank qi gap regen gap between allies and enemies. It also buffs ally sp.def for some reason.
• First tech buffs ally resist which is sometimes relevant. The bigger contribution is via the indirect "LQ's fields are harder to dispel therefore they have more uptime to do their own support".
- ENM: no support beyond the CC provided by sealing a single enemy tech, which is situational at best.
- BKSD:
• Primal War Calling is a very strong negative buff, both from the constant attacks and the further penalties to speed and dodge. Next level adds General's Attendant for a fairly potent passive positive defensive buff.
• A cornerstone for setting up a field that stacks the odds in allies' favor.
- UGM: currently no support, next level Dirge allows us to grind down a single opponent's defenses which can be helpful if we want to help kill a hill spirit or something.
- PMR: no support elements.
- MSS: social support.
• An active, positive social defense buff even. Effect should be fairly strong but it's hard to say without knowing the DC's involved.
- MoSS:
• no direct support but spirit mediation is a niche abilitiy and being able to cover it well, while situational, can have immense payoff.
• I'm fairly sure based off of vague yrs comments in the discord that in the future we'll be able to call upon the local spirits to aid us, probably starting small as extra eyes/ears but potentially scaling to unleashing the wrath of the forest or something.
There's also the scope axis, it's a bit boring. Most of LQ's big positive effects are limited to ~5 targets (more at a cost), and other than major single-target CC like elegy or LW her debuff fields are fairly global within her aoe. This naturally lends itself to a "small elite squad that can hold its own against large numbers" combat paradigm, and is also partly why we call LQ's style something like "field control".
Also not mentioned the already-present and steadily growing synergy between LQ and her spirits, especially Zhengui for said field control since he covers a much more physical angle than LQ, both offensively and defensively.
summary/tl;dr:
- Buffs in context of support are effects which tilt the odds in favor of your group. Come in flavors:
• Positive for ally-focused and Negative for enemy focused.
• Active and Passive in terms of narrative role. - Attacks are the most basic form of this since they occupy enemy attention and resources (qi, actions).
- In terms of effects that contribute more than just attacking, LQ has the following:
- Huge effect on a battlefield: Domain/FVM, BKSD.
- Significant effect: Domain/passive, PLR/IPF, PLR/LW, SNR, WHR.
- Small effects: FSS(SEA/echoes).
- non-combat: MSS(social), RME(scry, strategic), MoSS(intel+minor labor).
Ignoring terms like "buff" or "support", it's a fairly long list and most of LQ's arts are at significant+ in terms of how they affect a many vs many engagement. Feel free to draw your own conclusions from this.
Also note, I've not talked about how much any of this comes/has come into play in previous large-scale fights but it feels like a decent amount, someone else can pick up this line from here since the post is already way too long.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Wow that upkeep 10 in SNR is so good for us. Upkeep is by far one of the best ways to leverage our massive qi pool.
Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Most of what you suggest relies on archery working the same way and having the same innate advantages among immortals as it does irl. But it doesn't. Archery here is not about an arrows, it's about qi. And qi can be applied through music just as well.
An archer can be tracked through their qi. Arrows have harder time hurting people than songs because spiritual defence is often neglected. Powerful archery arts can be traced towards specific user with a decently narrow result. Archery DPS is questionable when compared to spamming buffed CtE from far range every turn.
To get something actually worthwile, it will have to be a significant investment. Perhaps if Ling Qi wasn't trying to be a musician, a diplomat, a spy, a fighter, a thief and a scout there would be an opportunity. But not as it is now and probably not in foreseeable future.
E.
Since when ducals are our peers? Or an inner sect student one year our senior?
I also think you substitute support for buff and base your expectations on that. But support is not restricted to buffs only and I'm glad we went the debuff road. Unlike Ma Jun we don't always have other combatans with us to buff them.
And no, Zhengui or Hanyi by themselves don't count as other combatants yet.
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Don't we basically always have three other combatants around? And potentially are going to be getting a fourth before we leave the Sect?
- Location
- The Space Between
I greatly appreciate BlackNoise's post about all our explicit support capabilities, and would add that the forced repositioning of UGM and the Eagle tech from BKSD are superb Ultra Excellent support abilities but . . . I think they're fairly hard to use compared to the other parts. I would expect them to be more and more impactful as support elements as our War score increases. Displacement is incredibly powerful when applied precisely. I'm excited. (PS. I loved us hitting Wang from the side and knocking them off course. Ultra mobility makes a fixed-directional push so ridiculous lmao <3)
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as for the "failing of our support build". First of all. >:[
Secondly: The way our Way is shaping up is something along the lines of "Connections Defeat Loneliness". We beat opponents by having more friends than them and wearing the enemy down on a fundamental, Qi-based, and connection based level. I think this would be a cool way to begin working on our Social Offense too. You'll see what I mean I think.
We set a situation that enables our allies to prosper.
We grant defensive bonuses and Qi regeneration so that allies can push their capabilities to the limit by minimizing the risk of them being domed out instantly, or too tired/drained to continue if they do.
The reds and weakest bonds of ours clash with the enemy's weakest bonds, their reds. If ours survive the initial clash, the odds that the enemy tires themselves to incapacitation before our reds lose is pretty high.
D rank Green is B or A rank for Yellows and beyond Red's unassisted capability. It's better than just a C rank differential, it's both a D rank buff and a D rank drain. When the enemy reds lose, our reds can assist our yellows against the enemy yellows. Here again, there's an extremely uneven battlefield which only gets worse as the enemies become isolated and our allies support one another.
When we finally come to the Green clash. Well. Some people might be able to out-duel us. We won't win many arm wrestling contests. Maybe they can beat us faster than we can defeat them.
but can they beat us faster than our allies can beat their allies?
Are they going to have more friends than us in just a few short minutes?
Do they have 3(4) peers with them everywhere they go?
it'd be quite the Cold and Lonely End to be the last straggler. They say power makes you lonely.
we can fix that for you <3
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Socially I think that approach can work too.
Just like in combat, if we enable even low-rank allies to succeed in their conflicts using their own offensive powers they'll be able to turn those powers to assist us if we're capable. If other political-types get social feedback the way we currently have it, they'll be able to tell if their people broadly approve/like us. That should make the negotiations a bit more favorable.
I would also like to explore the Moon's Faces a bit more, so that we can Sincerely present ourselves as the aspects of ourselves most amenable to those we're negotiating with. I would love to be able to Sincerely dress up and "Disguise" as a random mortal street-kid. Because, well, that's still sincerely part of ourselves. I think street social-networks would be interesting for us to be able to interact with, and are probably an obtuse enough angle to be valuable. If nothing else, we'd be able to do some of Grinning's Blessed Work assisting the mischievous, suffering free survive just a little bit easier
D <3
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as for the "failing of our support build". First of all. >:[
Secondly: The way our Way is shaping up is something along the lines of "Connections Defeat Loneliness". We beat opponents by having more friends than them and wearing the enemy down on a fundamental, Qi-based, and connection based level. I think this would be a cool way to begin working on our Social Offense too. You'll see what I mean I think.
We set a situation that enables our allies to prosper.
We grant defensive bonuses and Qi regeneration so that allies can push their capabilities to the limit by minimizing the risk of them being domed out instantly, or too tired/drained to continue if they do.
The reds and weakest bonds of ours clash with the enemy's weakest bonds, their reds. If ours survive the initial clash, the odds that the enemy tires themselves to incapacitation before our reds lose is pretty high.
D rank Green is B or A rank for Yellows and beyond Red's unassisted capability. It's better than just a C rank differential, it's both a D rank buff and a D rank drain. When the enemy reds lose, our reds can assist our yellows against the enemy yellows. Here again, there's an extremely uneven battlefield which only gets worse as the enemies become isolated and our allies support one another.
When we finally come to the Green clash. Well. Some people might be able to out-duel us. We won't win many arm wrestling contests. Maybe they can beat us faster than we can defeat them.
but can they beat us faster than our allies can beat their allies?
Are they going to have more friends than us in just a few short minutes?
Do they have 3(4) peers with them everywhere they go?
it'd be quite the Cold and Lonely End to be the last straggler. They say power makes you lonely.
we can fix that for you <3
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Socially I think that approach can work too.
Just like in combat, if we enable even low-rank allies to succeed in their conflicts using their own offensive powers they'll be able to turn those powers to assist us if we're capable. If other political-types get social feedback the way we currently have it, they'll be able to tell if their people broadly approve/like us. That should make the negotiations a bit more favorable.
I would also like to explore the Moon's Faces a bit more, so that we can Sincerely present ourselves as the aspects of ourselves most amenable to those we're negotiating with. I would love to be able to Sincerely dress up and "Disguise" as a random mortal street-kid. Because, well, that's still sincerely part of ourselves. I think street social-networks would be interesting for us to be able to interact with, and are probably an obtuse enough angle to be valuable. If nothing else, we'd be able to do some of Grinning's Blessed Work assisting the mischievous, suffering free survive just a little bit easier
D <3
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Not a Deus Ex Machina by definition. They only come after Ling Qi had already maximized competency in a skill and is going above and beyond in a moment of crisis, after which they become part of her core skillset.
Advanced skills need your base skill to be as good as possible for your tier, then you Go Beyond. Behind that moment of brilliance is months of grinding.
- Location
- the internet
There's always next time!
On another note guys, why isn't the Rank 1 bond with Bao Qian listed among the SLs on the front page?
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Because the front page hasn't been updated in some time.
Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Well, you can certainly think so but I disagree. Our spirits don't have enough tricks to be adequate combatants on their own for the level we're fighting at. Like, do you think any of them can challenge Ling Qi in a 1v1? I don't think so, not yet.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Well now, that just isnt fair. I dont thing most anyone can handle Ling Qi 1v1. Especially if you remember that all her spirits are basically newbies in cultivation as well, so they have less experience than Ling Qi.
- Location
- the internet
Well not to nitpick but "anyone" at her level wouldn't handle her 1v1. Wang Chao, 2 stages above her, did just fine...Just sayin.